


Things are better if I stay

by StarshineAndBooks



Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Love and other fairy tales (Sanders Sides AU), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders-Centric, Attemped coup, DO NOT READ IF IN A BAD HEADSPACE, Hurt No Comfort, I'm Sorry, Logan dies, M/M, Marriage fixed, Marriage ruined by death, Multi, Not Beta Read, Therapy, Virgil handles this really bad, take care of yourself!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:08:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25215973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarshineAndBooks/pseuds/StarshineAndBooks
Summary: Summary: A coup gone wrong ends Logan’s life early, even by human standards, he dies and his loved ones are left to pick up the pieces.AKA: I got sad so I took my emotional support character from not only the fandom but the LAOFT AU specificaly, and killed him. Oops.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton, Thomas Sanders/Thomas Sanders Shorts Characters
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28
Collections: Everything LAOFT





	Things are better if I stay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SoDoRoses (FairyChess)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/gifts).



> Hey honeys, fair warning, this is a HEAVY fic. Please take care of yourself. There is major character death and blood. I wrote this while upset, please don't let this hurt you if you know it will. Logan dies, it isn't pretty. A young girl is present sorta for the whole ordeal. It is not a light fic!
> 
> On a side note, the title id from Helena by My chemical romance.

Logan wasn’t supposed to be there, he never was. It was meant for his husband, for Virgil. A plan made by drunken faeries to throw a coup, and try to over through Virgil.

Virgil who was at home with their daughter. Virgil who was the faerie prince. Virgil who would later be very very murderous.

Logan strides through the door of the faerie hill,making sure he has everything in his satchel, eyes falling to the crunching leaves under foot. He sighs, the autumn air chilly this evening, just this side of unpleasant.

The next time Logan has to go and get Bell’s lesbian out of trouble he’ll have to have a real coming to Jesus with Bell. Logan shakes the thought from his mind, he must be spending too much time with May.

“Help!” A voice calls, and Logan goes still.

Logan is not delusional, he is still in a decidedly Fae part of the woods, and voices from an unseen source are definitely not to be trustable.

“HELP ME!” It rings again.

A second voice sounds, “No, you’ll draw attention.”

The second voice sounds like that of an injured man.

Logan swallows, he can’t leave them here. The voices, they’re those of his mortal husbands. Logan could never just leave them there.

Logan has never been very good at rationing things when he is distressed for a loved one.

He doesn't care, he runs to the right suddenly, following the calls for help that are in Patton’s voice, broken and brittle like glass shards. Scared, almost as chilling as when he’d been confronted with the Roman the serpent king owned, the night Roman.

Logan doesn't feel the first arrow until the second one is hitting.

Each arrow goes to his chest, hitting vital organs, and making him bleed entirely too much. He feels each arrow, fifteen in total, hit him, piercing through his skin and muscles, flowers growing from his wounds and hurting him further.

Logan crumples and hears an exchange of words that worry him.

“Oh fuck- That’s snowmelt! Oh we are so dead!”

“You are so dead, I didn’t shoot the arrows.”

“That won’t matter when the witch hears about it.”

Logan swallows hard, eyes glazing over and heart racing, what if they get Virgil next?

“Virg-” HIs throat is too full of sharp bloody shards of pain to continue.

“Logan?!” Virgil calls, appearing, it’s pretty hard for the magic in Logan’s bracelet to not let Virgil know of Logan’s condition.

Virgil scans the area just long enough to feel terrified before he looks to the ground and feels something far, far more potent than the terror of a few seconds before.

“Logan- This- This isn’t funny! Come on, get up! Get up, get up you- you- you incredibly wonderful man, get up!” Virgil shrieks, knees feeling weaker than they have in years.

“Get up.”

Logan swallows hard and manages, “I would like that very much, yes.”

“Then get up!”

“It seems as though I cannot at the moment, darling.” Logan coughs hard, lungs rattling and blood coming to splatter his face and arm as Logan tries to cover his mouth.

“Logan,” Virgil says, sinking to his knees in a surly undignified matter.

Not that Virgil could care in even the slightest with Logan bleeding out on the forest floor, in front of him no less. This isn’t right. This isn’t okay. Nothing is okay and he’s going to lose Logan isn’t he?

What is he going to tell PAtton and Roman? Kai, Sloane, Remy, Emilie, everyone else? What will he tell Linda? Or Dot and LArry?

God, what will he tell Thomas?

“Pretty stars tonight,” Logan rasps, eyes falling from the sky back to Virgil, “darling?”

“Yeah,” Virgil nods, he’ll alway agree with his husbands.

But right now Logan could say he’d never loved Virgil, and wanted to marry the serpent king but married Virgil to spite the unseelie, and that Logan had never loved anyone, and that Virgil deserved to be tortured, and Virgil would agree. Virgil would agree to anything.

“Don’t be sad, love.” Logan says weakly, reaching for Virgil.

Except that.

How could Virgil ever possibly not be sad over this?!

“Logan,” Virgil sobs, eyesight blurring at an alarming rate. But he takes Logan’s hand between his own two gently, “Logan don’t, I can get us to May.”

Virgil focuses everything he has on taking Logan to May, the shadows closing in around them, he won’t lose Logan too. Never, Logan isn’t- Logan’s not even old enough to die by human standards!

A startled shriek from Patton on the couch followed by a gasp and a call for mAy in about three voices.

Virgil’s own, if anyone was really listening, was distorting and turning decidedly non human, and much more eldritch horror-y than not.

“Shhh,” Logan shushes, “Don’t -Linny’s asleep.”

Virgil snaps back around to give Logan a very dirty look, how dare Logan shush him when Logan is literally dying. Oh god, Logan is dying- this isn’t right. Nothing is right-

“Everyone get the hell away from Logan.” May snaps, stomping forward with a black bag with pastel paisley embroidered on it and her duck slippers.

Virgil growls low, in the back of his throat, and not even he is sure what the sound most resembles.

May stares at Logan and she shakes her head with a sigh, “Logan, baby, why on God’s green earth would ya decided to become target in target practice, ya mongrel!? Are ya tryin’ ta kill me early?”

Logan stares just a little more blank than anyone would like at May’s face, “Nana-”

“Don’t you dare start some goodbye speech.”

And as if the moment could not get any worse, as if the universe hadn’t just done the not only unthinkable, but the also unforgivable by promising Logan chronic pain if not death, banshee shrieking starts up in the yard.

The snarl that leaves Roman as he drags Patton into the yard is much more threatening than Virgil thinks he’s ever heard.

“‘M sorry.” Logan rasps, a gurgle following before he swallows as hard as he can, “nd I love you, and all o’ them. Don’- d-”

“Logan don’t you dare,” May snaps wetly, “Don’t you dare! Just hold on!”

She sets a hand on his shoulder and starts digging through her bag hastily with the other.

“Don’ let them be too sa-”

“Logan, I’ll kill you if you do this.” She growls, pulling a bottle from the bag and opening it quickly before doing her level best to get it down Logan’s throat.

Logan swallows the liquid as best he can around the lack of control over his muscles he has going on. His eyes fall to Virgil’s, trying to plead Virgil to do something. To ease the pain.

And what Virgil wouldn’t do for those quick silver eyes.

“Have I told you about how I love you? Well, I’ll tell you again.” Virgil’s voice starts to lessen in distortion and grows more and more alike to the moon breaching the broken ice of a pond.

Logan’s breathing becomes more and more shallow, and even harder to keep up. His lungs rattle with every breath now, and his blood collects in his throat.

And Virgil talks, he isn’t quite sure what he’s saying, and from the looks of it, neither is Logan. May has turned her back on them, oddly quiet.

Then, “Vatti?”

A small voice, a girl’s voice. Linda’s voice.

As if shocked, Logan tries to get to see his baby one last time, figure out why she sounds so broken.

Linda slowly steps forward, “VAtti, what- Is he-”

“Go upstairs, Linny.” May says, voice making Virgil think on those spiky balls from the trees everyone uses around christmas, sometimes called a witch burr, but as miserable as wet socks.

“Mamaw-”

“Upstairs Linda Marie.”

Linda casts a look to Logan and chokes, “Papa-”

“He loves ya, now go upstairs.”

“Mamaw-”

“Now. One.”

“But-”

“Two, Miss Linny I’ll tan yer hide if ya make me get ta three.”

“I love you papa,” Linda says before running upstairs to try to pray this all into some twisted, dark, horrendous nightmare.

Virgil looks down just in time to watch the life and fight leave Logan’s eyes, and oh, that’s a rather dull look in those eyes. Isn’t it?

“What’ll we tell Thomas?” Virgil asks after a pause of who knows how long, but more than he could bear.

“The truth, I’d imagine.”

“You want to tell Logan that his brother was murdered in cold blood in the middle of faerie?” Virgil growls, then growls lower, “He was killed in the middle of my land.”

“So he was.”

“I have business as soon as we finish telling the others.” Virgil sneers, “Someone is going to answer for all of this.”

May turns after a moment, “You won’t be going alone.”

“We’ll see you hag.”

“Shuddup.” May scoffs.

And if the two are teary or maybe even crying, neither says anything, just this once.

\----------

Virgil doesn't know when Patton and Roman came in, only that he hadn’t gone to bed yet. Having instead opted to sit in Logan’s garden, out back.

“Virgil?” Roman asks after a moment, sitting on the ground beside his husband. “Did- Was he in pain-”

Virgil snorts, “No, he was only murdered and shot full of arrows, he wasn’t in-” Virgil promptly shuts his mouth before sighs, “I- I am sorry. That was cruel.”

“Just- just a little, sweetie.” Patton ists on Virgil’s otherside, and Virgil isn’t sure when that happened either.

“We have to tell the others, his parents. We have to tell Thomas,” Virgil croaks, “How are we meant to tell Thomas?”

“Linda said she saw him.” Roman supplies, “So, uh, there’s that.”

Virgil forces himself to look at Roman, and he nearly screams when he sees the look upon Roman’s face. Whether in protective rage or broken sobs, Virgil’s isn’t sure, so he bites it back.

“He uh- God!” Virgil mutters something unkind under his breath about himself and words before managing, “He said we shouldn’t be sad. What the fuck does that mean?!”

Patton gives a laugh, and the underlying tone of a glass bell breaking as it rings isn’t unnoticed by Virgil. Virgil turns his head to see Patton and that was also a bad choice. It seems Virgil is only capable of making incredibly, spectacularly horrid decisions tonight.

“Just like him,” Roman shakes his head, setting his hands palm down on his knees and squeezing, “always so dismissive of his own worth!”

A thick, suffocating, decidedly sharp silence settles over the three. None of them quite touch the others, but they all want to.

To everyone’s surprise, it’s Mamaw who breaks the silence by walking into the backyard. Hands on her hips, “It’s three thirty in the morning, get yer asses in bed. This ain’t gonna be an easy recovery but we all know Logan’d have our hides if we let it tear us apart.”

“Mamaw,” Roman croaks weakly, turning to see his grandmother, “You can’t mean-”

“I mean what I said, Roman. Get yourselves in the house, or the faerie hill or somewhere else, but ya better sleep. We’re all going over to the Sanders house as soon as the sun comes up, because tonight’s a full moon and I am not going ta loose more o’ ya.”

“We should go there now.” PAtton says softly, “They’ll be angry if we put it off.”

“But-”

“I’ll go.” Virgil pushes to his feet, eyes finding the moon, not technically full, tomorrow night it will be though.

“Virgil-”

Virgil turns to face the humans, his humans, “You could come, if you like. I would not blame you if you stayed though.”

“We-”

“You two are decidedly human, yer stayin’ right here.” May says sharply, “and Virgil will be back by breakfast.”

“Yes, by breakfast.” Virgil says, though he isn’t sure when it is, or whether it will be this particular breakfast.

May nods, corralling PAtton and Roman into the house, and onto the couch, because she isn’t fool enough to think they’d sleep in the bed all four shared. Three now.

\----------

Thomas shrieked when Virgil appeared in his bedroom, waking a worried Harley with said shriek.

“Oh- goodness! Virgil-”

“I didn’t mean to come to this room.” Virgil whispers softly, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, force of habit, I mean, Logan used to share this room with me and-”

Virgil gives a choked sob at his husband’s name.

“Is Logan sick or something?” Thomas staggers out of bed quickly, grabbing a shirt from the floor.

“They-” Virgil shakes his head, “He’s dead. Dead, dead, dead.”

Thomas goes silent and Harley mutters a curse word.

“Well, I suppose we’d better go downstairs then.” Thomas sighs, shaking his head, “And, you’re sure he’s y’know, gone?”

Virgil gives an indignant sound, “As if I didn’t watch it happen.”

“Okay.” Thomas walks to stand by Virgil, and he just pulls the taller man into a hug, “It’ll be okay.”

“How are you so-”

“Calm?” Thomas gives a laugh, “I'm not awake and haven’t processed it yet, give me a bit.”

“O-oh.”

“I’ll go get- uh- yeah.” Harley finishes lamely, striding out of the room.

Brian rushes into the room, “Linda’s upset, she said-”

“I heard,” Thomas sighs, “Brian it’s threey forty ish, why’re you even awake?”

“Had a nightmare, ‘nd I didn’t wanna bother anyone, but kitty’s always there.”

Virgil sighs, finally wrapping Thomas up in a hug. “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“You can’t know that!”

“I do. You’d never hurt any of them, let alone kill.” Thomas says thickly, “”mon then, we’d better go tell mom and dad.”

“I’m still sorry.”

Virgil is led downstairs and sat on the couch, in Logan’s spot on the couch. And if that doesn't just make him want to scream, cry, or through a tantrum he isn’t sure what does.

He is vaguely aware of voices, and a conversation happening, but he couldn’t tell you who was speaking or what was being said.

“Virgil,” Logan’s voice insists urgently, and he knows it’s just his mind being cruel. Logan can’t be here, Logan’s gone.

“Virgil!” Thomas says louder, setting a hand on his shoulder, “Hey bud- we uh-”

“We- was he in pain.”

Virgil just nods slowly, “Uh- yeah, arrows do that.”

“He was-” Dot swallows hard.

“Y-yeah. Well, I should go. I’m sorry I don’t uhm- I don’t wanna intrude-”

“You can stay.” LArry offers weakly, “You’re family.”

“I have business to attend to.” Virgil says finally, “The sooner I start the sooner the bastards that killed him are found.”

“O-oh.”

“Hey uhm….” Thomas sighs before he just goes for it, “You’re family Virgil, don’t disappear on us. Please. And don’t you dare disappear on your daughter and husbands.”

“But-”

“You better come back on friday, we’ll have a big family dinner, all the gang.”

“But.”

“You’ll be here.” Thomas says, “And you’ll do it.”

“Thomas-”

“Go home, see your husbands.” Harley says finally, “It’ll do you some good.”

Virgil looks to Harley, startled, “But-”

“Go.”

\----------

Virgil appears in the kitchen to his own house after a stop to demand Bell and white to start an investigation. It involved Bell and WHite berating him for abandoning the living husbands.

Virgil finds Patton and Roman on the couch, tangled to gether. Tear tracks staining their faces, but their breathing deep and even, they’re asleep.

Virgil goes about lifting them, and carrying them to the guest room, curled together and clinging to each other in his arms.

He sets them on the bed and sits on the edge, he won’t be sleeping tonight, or maybe ever again.

Linda stands in the doorway, “Vatti?”

Virgil turns, he’s never been good at ignoring, let alone denying his daughter anything, especially such a thing as comfort.

“C’mere liebling.” Virgil says gently, holding his arms out.

Linda rushes forward, burying herself in Virgil’s arms and chest, clambering into his lap. Virgil hugs her as tight as he can while she still breathes.

“Vatti, I- Will he come back like Gretta did?”

“No.” Virgil says, “No.”

“Oh. Good. But uhm…. Are you all going to leave too?”

“No liebling.” Virgil says, “I would never leave you.”

“But- what about daddy and pop?”

“Oh, liebling,” Virgil hums gently, “Not on purpose. But they’re human, they’ll die eventually. You and I will still be here though.”

“O-oh.” Linda says weakly, “But why-” she cuts off and a sob wracks her body.

“Because liebling, life isn’t fair.” Virgil says, not quite sure what she was going to ask but knowing it wasn’t about to be pleasant.

“I hate this.” She whispers, “It’s- it’s- it’s atrocious.”

Virgil gives a cut off sob at her choice of words, “Oh liebling, you’ll be the smartest one in the family as you get older.”

“Don’t wanna be the smartest, I want my papa.” She says petulantly.

“I know.” Virgil says gently. “I know.”

\----------

Logan wakes up. To his surprise, in no pain and under a blue sky with those puffy white clouds. A large dog barks excitedly at him, so he pushes to his feet and tilts his head, watching the creature.

It barks again, turning tail and running to the edge of a tree line before turning to bark once more. Ah, Logan supposes he’s meant to follow the dog?

Logan shrugs, then laughs at himself, no one is around to see such a slip of self control after all. He follows the dog, noting the trees to be apple trees.

As the dog leads him he finds himself wondering where his husbands are and- oh. Yes. He is dead then?

He looks up to a startled gasp, finding a woman with inky hair and her hands on her hips.

“Logan Sanders.” She snaps, cuffing the back of his head, “You left them?!”

“I didn’t mean to.” Logan says, rubbing the back of his head in an attempt to soothe it, “Who are you and why did you hit me?”

“You’re a moron, you know that?!” The woman scoffs, “Askin’ who I am, if Virgil didn’t-”

“You’d be Gretta then.” Logan snorts, “You look better than last time I saw you.”

“I’d hope.” She crosses her arms stiffly, glaring at Logan.

Logan sighs, “He uhm…. Virgil misses you still. A lot, and as someone who ate your biscuit recipe product, may I just ask, do you know how spices work?”

Greta scoffs, “If it ain’t broke ya don’t fix it! Yer insufferable.”

Logan shakes his head, “I am sorry it was rude to say that I suppose I’ve spent too much time with Kai and Virgil.”

“It’s fine, Logan.” Gretta shrugs, “I figure I have eternity to make you like my cooking.”

“I see. Yes, I suppose so. But first, if I truly am dead, I think I have a snake to slap.”

“What?”

“I am less and less fond of the snake king every time Roman reveals another bit of past, I wish to slap the bastard out of the usurper.”

“Oh.” Gretta blinks, a cheshire grin spreading over her lips, “Let me get Trudi and we’ll all go with ya.”

“Very well.” Logan nods, eyes observing the people in the distance.

“I think,” Gretta says, “This is the start of a wonderfully elaborate prank on my brother. Don’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, c’mon, we’d better hurry up, I know Abbey’ll wanna see you. Not sure why, you aren’t nearly as pretty as Virgil was, but he wasn’t shit either.”

Logan laughs softly, “Oh, you’re a little softer than he said-”

Gretta cuffs the back of his head again, “Shut up ya overgrown pixie.”

“O-oh.” Logan freezes, ‘Oh god Virgil- I left them. All of them- Thomas, my husbands, my parents, my friends.”

“Oh, yes, crying fixes it.”

Logan grabs Gretta’s wrist tightly, “No, you don’t get it. I left all of them, but I also left my baby. She is ten. My ten year old daughter saw me just as I was dying.”

“Oh.” Gretta blinks, “That’s uhm- Let’s go get Abbey, she’ll be better equipped for emotions.”

“I just want to go home!” Logan snaps, “Please?!”

“Ya can’t, Logan. Yer here now.”

“Thanks, I hate it.” Logan croaks, his voice cracking like thin ice over a lake, and he plunges into the darkness below.

“Oh- ABIGAIL GAUGE!”

“YEAH?!”

“C’MERE WOULD YA?! LOGAN’S HERE EARLY AND HAVING A PITY PARTY AND I CAIN’T HELP ‘IM!” Gretta calls, flinching as Logan collapses into her.

She awkwardly wraps her arms around him, patting him stiffly, “There there. Strange faerie I don’t know well who’s sobbin’ inta my shirt.”

“Virgil used to talk like that.” Logan says miserably, “I miss him.”

“Ah, I know, little gremlin weaves his way into your heart and then you lose him.” Gretta mutters, “C’mon Logan you can’t mean to cry forever.”

“I might.” Logan petulantly mumbles.

“Logan, baby, that you?” A second woman’s voice sounds, “God, you’re bigger than I remember for sure.”

Logan turns slowly, finding a fiery redhead, “Who- Who are you?”

“I go by Abbey,” She shrugs, “I’m Roman’s mom.”

“Mom and dad talked about you sometimes.”

“Ye-ah, well, I talk about them sometimes too.” Abbey holds a hand out, “C’mon baby, we’ll get you settled and calmed down, then we can go wherever you like.”

Logan takes Abbey’s hand, flinging his arms around her, feeling an oddly deep connection he didn’t know existed with this woman who looks just enough like Roman to hurt.

And maybe it takes Logan a while to settle, sometimes it still hurts. But he does end up slapping Durrant, multiple times, Gretta, Trudi, and Abbey also join the slapping the bastard out of Durrant party.

Virgil sees the poor faeries who killed Logan to a public execution. But it doesn't do anything to fix the ache Logan’s loss created. He’s more protective of his loved ones, each and every one of them. Especially Linda.

Linda who may not look like Logan, but shares in the ability to grow plants. Linda who has taken up the habit of reading herself to sleep with dictionaries. Linda, who will outlive Virgil, god willing that is.

Patton heals slowly, they all do, but Patton lost not only his husband, but his very first friend. Patton lost the man who he did his first play date with. Patton lost a lot when Logan left them, but he healed slowly.

Roman becomes more reckless at first, he couldn’t care less, if he dies he can see Logan again. He eventually, through therapy Emilie provides -who else?- realizes that he still has so much to live for. It gets a little easier, but Roman internalizes it, that two men he’s loved dead, what if Patton aor Virgil is next?

Virgil, Patton, and Roman’s marriage is strained at first. They still love each other, and that would never change, but the dynamic changed. They were mourning, and breaking, and not talking about it. Again. After a year and Linda sobbing and asking if they’re going to break up and leave her too, they go to counseling, which, helps. It isn’t perfect, and they’ll alway be missing their last piece, they won’t be whole. But, they’re better, they’re marriage isn’t strained.

Thomas withdrew from the world, only really talking to Harley and Brian. He lost his best friend in the whole world, his barley younger but still baby, brother. He lost his partner in crime, his childhood memory. Now Thomas only knows half of everything, where as before Thomas knew half of everything, so did Logan, so they knew everything.

May got crankier. May lost another kid she’d loved to a horrible accident. Another kid she couldn’t save. May lives in the past for a while, but she knows the drill, she’s probably the best prepared.

Dot and Larry stop going in public when avoidable. They cry together, and the gp to therapy. They lost their child, and so much more. They lost not just Logan, but almost Thomas too.

Kai doesn't make fun of Logan anymore, he misses the nerd.

Sloane and Corbin try to keep Thomas company when they can, but they all have lives of their own.

Elliot spends a lot of time with Virgil, maybe they weren’t as close to Logan, but they did count him a friend.

Remy and Emilie while they mourn and definitely are a little strained and weary, they make sure the others have groceries and therapy. They do their level best to help the others when they can.

**Author's Note:**

> If you read this far, hey again. I hope you are all okay. I'll work on something kinder I think for this sub fandom (Is it a sub fandom if the au has a fandom? Cause I think it does. I don't know.) For now though, I have remedy, which is a reunion between Linda and her parents, takes place after V's 'forever' fic.


End file.
